Dear fellow swimmers
Thames Water want to pump sewage effluent into my local swimming spot. Help me stop them.
Our petition didn't stop them. Nor did our responses to their first rounds
of consultations. But there's still time, and I need your help.
In brief, Thames Water want to take up to 30% of the flow from the Thames near Teddington in times of drought and pump it to reservoirs in North London. To maintain river flows, they will replace this water with treated sewage effluent from Mogden Sewage Treatment Works.
But there's a catch: the water will only be taken occasionally, in dry conditions when the river is most ecologically vulnerable. Yet the effluent will be pumped in every single day, year-round. Will anyone want to swim in that? Or paddle or row?
The Statutory Consultation for this project, known as Teddington Direct River Abstraction (TDRA) scheme, is now open and runs until 26 August 2025.
There are multiple reasons why this project is a bad idea and there are better solutions to improving the country's drought resilience. As a regular swimmer in this spot, I feel
compelled to protect it. I'm asking you, as a swimmer and as someone who might one day swim here, to help me.
Please head over to our website to see the letter I've already sent, which you are welcome to copy or adapt as you see fit. Please join me in writing to register your objection to this flawed scheme. Let's make it clear to Thames Water and
the Planning Inspectorate that this project must not go ahead.
